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Second-half surge completes Italian job

A second-half surge from Scotland under-18 saw them power past Italy to finish fifth in the FIRA-AER European Championships in Poland today (24-15).

Despite having most of the possession in the opening exchanges, it was Italy who opened the scoring with a penalty kick.

Scotland under-18 centre Adam Hastings then levelled matters with a kick of his own.

From there the Scots continued to play a well-structured game, that was founded on clean set-piece possession though, much like the early exchanges of the previous round, Scotland were let down by the final ball as they sought to break the deadlock.

Half-time: Scotland U18 (3-3) Italy U18

Such was the quality of the performance early on, that it seemed inevitable that Scotland would find their groove and cross the whitewash.

That assessment proved to be the case when, in the first 20 minutes of the second-half, Scotland ran in three tries, two from the consistently impressive wing Ben Robbins and prop Zander Fagerson.

Robbins' first was the product of clean ball and good hands from the backs inside him to put him in space to race in from the 22, while his second – though similar in finish – was first the product of fine turnover ball from the pack.

By contrast, Fagerson’s score was one for the big men.

The pack put in a huge effort to batter their way deep into the Italian 22 and, after repeated pick and goes, the tighthead prop powered over from short range.

With each score converted by Hastings, Scotland had earned a convincing cushion as the game entered its final quarter.

Unfortunately, however, if frustrations are to be sought/taken from the overall impressive win, they can be sourced from the closing stages in the encounter as the clinical edge escaped the Scots and saw errors creep into their game.